I hate it when people send me private messages about this stuff...

Got the following PM:

Originally Posted by kikiwora

Good evening.
I have been punished for "racist jokes and server insulting", though I wasn't insulting server on my opinion. It was just a simple joke, which Elborax failed to understand.I also fell that his judgment was quite unfair, because I'm a good community member,
always answered for people's questions, helped them to improve in TFC and traded a lot
and have built quite a big and advanced castle and don't wan't to loose that.

But the thing is I was put in jail for 5h. 4 days already have passed, but I still can't connect to server.
And Elborax isn't reacting to my messages in global chat. Mails aren't available for some reason.
As for me, it's a bad attitude towards players make them wait so long. My desire to play isn't infinite, so as my patience. I have a limited time and want to spend it building my own castle, with my friend, and yet, get banned in process.

I admit that there is some racist tint to my joke, but it's definitely not deserves such a long ban, furthermore, I have apologized back then and said that it will not happen again but was ignored.

Could you help me to solve this problem, please.

It's very unpleasantly when good players like myself get banned for no real reasons.
I also feel that it's a Reverse discrimination problem.

It wasn't just a racist joke. It was a simple racist joke. Got it. Thanks for clearing that up. It almost went over my head, too!

I'm glad you pointed out that you are a good community member. Because from your conduct I never would have guessed. Good community members don't make simple racist jokes.

Idling in the jail server does not count towards time served. You will have to keep moving around. If you are and time isn't counting up, then there may be a problem. We could look into that.

There is a reason we don't want players in the jail server sending mail to everyone. Can you guess what that reason is? Thankfully you could post your grievances on the forum, instead of sending me a PM, so staff members can help you. We broadcast this on the server all the time.

You have limited patience? You should try to imagine us having to deal with players who get a course on what our rules are, then break those rules anyway, then we need to deal out some kind of punishment and to top it all off those players feel entitled to better treatment.

Bad attitude for having to make you wait long? Get this through your head: YOU DO NOT PAY US FOR ANY KIND OF SERVICE. Everything is run by volunteers and, mostly, paid for by me. So you can sit there and be patient, or you could post on the forum as we state every couple of minutes on the server you got banned from.

You did not get banned in the process of building your own castle with your friend. You got banned for being racist. Stop saying you got banned for no real reason. There was a real reason: you were being racist.

I'm glad however that you admitted to being racist. Acknowledging that you have a problem is the first step to fixing that problem. However you do not get to decide what kind of punishment is appropriate. And you do not get to tell us how to run our server. You broke the rules and you have an attitude of entitlement. You do not deserve anything from us. Everything we provided was something you could simply be thankful for and that's that. We're not asking for anything in return, but we will pick out rotten apples such as yourself. Which brings me to my last point in this time waster of a post.

You really, REALLY, need to look up the words "racism" and "discrimination" in a dictionary. You are not the victim of "reverse discrimination". Seriously. You sound really dumb saying such things. We discriminate against players who brake our rules. Good players get to stay on the server, while players who brake the rules are filtered out. (just like rotten apples vs non-rotten apples, get it?)

What happened here is the following:

You joined our server.

You were given a course on our rules (the "rule maze").

You broke the rules anyway.

You got caught.

You got punishment.

Something didn't went as expected with your punishment. (If you had politely asked if something was wrong, we would have taken the time to help out. But not now.)

Your entitled little self thought you deserved better.

You disagree with our rules.

You complained to me in a PM.

I posted your PM on the forum as you should have done in the first place, except in a polite manner without all the entitled whiny complaints.

I addressed your points.

You look like an idiot.

I have restarted the jail server, just in case anything got stuck there. You may try again and see if your jail time ticks down. If it does not then feel free to post here. If you post anything unfriendly you will get a ban instead of jail time. To be clear, this is a "just shut up and take it" kind of deal I'm giving you. And the only reason I'm doing that is because it's my day off and I'm in a good mood. Otherwise I would have banned you instead of going through the trouble of typing this post.

Indeed, kikiwora was jailed for 5 hours due to "a simple racist joke." (Here I'd like to see a chart or article that shows telling simple racist jokes instead of well-constructed and sophisticated racist jokes sheds better light on the person who makes them). Yes, he apologized right away when confronted and promised that it'd not happen again. That was one of two reasons (keeping the second one for later) why they were not banned straight away for racism and insulting the server, which they both did. Instead, I placed them in jail to see what happens. Sadly for them, it happened.

This occurred to me as an ironical remark that should simply bring on the discussion about the whole thing. And showed the disrespect to my lenience on the punishment and breaking their promise. I get it, I use irony and sarcasm quite often as well as others but say it comes a bit inappropriate when serious things, such as the server rules, are being discussed. I was serious with you.

Adding to the "good member" and "respecting rules" and such. Not to mention a bit of ironical remarks on "how would you do things differently" and "how some of our rules may sound silly" kikiwora was previously:
1) warned for improper animal penning (both in pen size and animal count)
2) warned for having too many fruit trees in your town
3) notified about having yet again one more tree over the limit

and finally, when I banned them I spawned in their town only to find yet again another tree over the limit, which I removed without any warnings now. I can provide the evidence for the above cases if anyone happens to not trust me (yes, I keep those on a dedicated backed-up drive).

Yes, I maybe should've removed the jail time sentence prior the ban. But you made it to the forum only to privately complain about the things mentioned above (my time is also limited therefore I can't list them for you), you could've made the time to overlook the Ban/Unban Requests subforum to find your ban listed there with evidence and some story to be followed by (the direct link to your ban is provided at the beginning of this post).

I have kinda expected this to happen, though you could've use the time spent in jail to look up your thing properly, or maybe to put together an article on Why Should We Let You Play Again and Trust You in Following Our Simple Rules™ or something along those lines. Shouting in global might accidentally work but it turns out being a bit inconvenient for both sides of the case. You have spent quite some time in the community, okay we get it. HOW did you spend it, is a bit of a question. All in all, this was the second reason I decided to give you a chance before banning you. And you failed to convince me.

First of all, I will say that all of that I will write beneath this text is targeted to solve a conflict, not to escalate it. So please, read it all carefully, and if something seems abnormal for you, ask me first, before I will get banned forever. If you see such a problem, it most likely is just misunderstanding, happened because I'm not very good in English, on my personal opinion, so there is quite a chance, that I actually has meant something else, not that you actually has perceived, we always can talk about that to figure out what exactly have happened and make sure it will not happen again.

I understand that I wasn't right with that joke and this will never happen again, I promise it, even if I already have promised it when talking to Elborax. I also think that there was misunderstanding at that time, cause I still didn't quite get why I was banned, I only have conjectures.
But let me explain myself and express my thought. Again, I'm not trying to insult anyone in any way.

I also want to make myself clear - I love this server, despite on it's having very strict rules in regard to animals, trees, etc, which I personally call absurd, but I'm adhere to them and fulfilling them (I will get to Elborax answer in a few moment later, after I finish this post).

There also was a reason, why I have wrote the first post to private messages, not in public thread, and it's not to make you uncomfortable, but if you insisted on making this public, I guess it doesn't matter.

And yes, I will write all of this only one time. So I ask you not to ban me just for expressing one's opinion, again.
Otherwise it will be violation of freedom of speech.

Originally Posted by InsaneJ

I'm glad you pointed out that you are a good community member. Because from your conduct I never would have guessed. Good community members don't make simple racist jokes.

You're judging me by a few jokes, nothing more. Why? I didn't kill anyone, didn't greifed anyone, didn't steal anything. I have helped people, traded with them, developed a good relationship, joined the nation. That is far more important than some jokes, even if I they were insulting for someone, especially when I have apologized for that. I do not understand, why you're so biased towards me.

Originally Posted by InsaneJ

Idling in the jail server does not count towards time served. You will have to keep moving around. If you are and time isn't counting up, then there may be a problem. We could look into that.

There is a problem. Do you really think, that I have so much time, so I will spend it just moving around on a jail server? Forgive me my impudence, but this is a very bad gameplay decision. I can understand why I should be online, ok, but you're literally trying to waste my time. As a player, I cannot tolerate that. You aren't expecting me to write a bot that will keep me just moving around, aren't you, cause otherwise, forgive me my rudeness, it's very stupid.I have a suggest for you. One simple idea, that will make this server better. How about a new kind of system, where player can actually extract some resources, let's say - ores and wood, while being in Jail server to use those later? That will be way more friendlier to end-user (players), than just wasting their time by dragging around and literally do nothing useful.

Originally Posted by InsaneJ

There is a reason we don't want players in the jail server sending mail to everyone. Can you guess what that reason is? Thankfully you could post your grievances on the forum, instead of sending me a PM, so staff members can help you. We broadcast this on the server all the time.

OK, thx for explanation, that is fair enough. But I also have to say something in this meter, It would be better if I actually could get some help even If I was banned from within the game. Maybe there is such a function, but I couldn't find it. Help function didn't work for me as well.

Originally Posted by InsaneJ

You have limited patience? You should try to imagine us having to deal with players who get a course on what our rules are, then break those rules anyway, then we need to deal out some kind of punishment and to top it all off those players feel entitled to better treatment.

Indeed, I have, so as everyone does. I understand your position, but I'm still a player, end-user and human, after all. Mine position is that every human, player and user deserves unbiased, good and adequate attitude towards them, no matter who there are or what they did. That is what I personally believe. Don't you agree with me? I can see, that you agree with me, cause otherwise we would not have this conversations. For that, I'm grateful.

Originally Posted by InsaneJ

Bad attitude for having to make you wait long? Get this through your head: YOU DO NOT PAY US FOR ANY KIND OF SERVICE. Everything is run by volunteers and, mostly, paid for by me.

I already said, even If I'm not paying you anything, I'm a player and an end-user. I already said mine opinion, which, btw, coincides with international rules of any service provided to end-users or customers. Every service should thread their customers with respect. Making them wait long isn't very respectful. I literally have had to take some actions myself to raise this question and get some answers and to solve this problem.
I actually wanted to donate this serves some of mine personal resources to support it, cause I liked it. Now, I have some doubts, but still hope that this problem will be solved peacefully, as it should be solved, and I will not get a lifetime ban just for expressing one's opinion and trying actually to do something to solve a problem.

Originally Posted by InsaneJ

So you can sit there and be patient, or you could post on the forum as we state every couple of minutes on the server you got banned from.

I already said, even If I'm not paying you anything, I'm a player and an end-user. I already said mine opinion, which, btw, coincides with international rules of any service provided to end-users or customers.
The reason why I have wrote those messages from time to time is that I I did not receive any response or reaction to my question. Nothing at all.

Originally Posted by InsaneJ

You did not get banned in the process of building your own castle with your friend. You got banned for being racist. Stop saying you got banned for no real reason. There was a real reason: you were being racist.

I'm glad however that you admitted to being racist. Acknowledging that you have a problem is the first step to fixing that problem. However you do not get to decide what kind of punishment is appropriate. And you do not get to tell us how to run our server. You broke the rules and you have an attitude of entitlement. You do not deserve anything from us. Everything we provided was something you could simply be thankful for and that's that. We're not asking for anything in return, but we will pick out rotten apples such as yourself. Which brings me to my last point in this time waster of a post.

You really, REALLY, need to look up the words "racism" and "discrimination" in a dictionary. You are not the victim of "reverse discrimination". Seriously. You sound really dumb saying such things. We discriminate against players who brake our rules. Good players get to stay on the server, while players who brake the rules are filtered out. (just like rotten apples vs non-rotten apples, get it?)

Please, don't ever again call me a racist, because I'm not a racist. And I never admitted that.
I explain myself at this section beneath this text only one time, just not to provoke you, and will not get to this again.
Here's a definition of "Racism": Racism is the belief in the superiority of one race over another, which often results in discrimination and prejudice towards people based on their race or ethnicity.I have no such beliefs, so I'm no racist by ANY means.
I indeed has admitted that there was a racist tint in my joke, but that isn't making me a racist.
I will not explain my joke now, but if you want me to explain it, I will do it. And yes, I personally think that this is a bad joke.

Now, please, refrain from insulting players in such a way. I didn't insult you, didn't I? Nope. I didn't.
Let us be polite and calm, I simply want to resolve this conflict, and explain myself.
And again, I'm not a racist. And I actually have lots of friends of other race, ethnicity and nationality all over from globe, and have had a good relationship with some of them for more then 9 years. So, pls, don't call me a racist, It is very insulting not just for me, but towards them also, because, who're they If I'm a racist?
Let's refrain from insults, that is not leading to anywhere.
I'm not talking about filtering bad players out, I'm talking about ignoring players problems and some other stuff.

"We discriminate against players who brake our rules." Players are humans. If you discriminate against them, you discriminate against humans, do you understand that? Let's not argue about this, I would like to stay out of this. It's quite obvious that it will be very hard to convince you, so I'd rather will not to do it at all the risking to get a life-time ban just for trying.

As for this part: "And you do not get to tell us how to run our server. You broke the rules and you have an attitude of entitlement. You do not deserve anything from us."
There is a reason why I'm doing this (besides solving my problem). And it's not to annoy you, It's to make this server better and to highlight the problems I clearly can see (I'm no a lawyer, no, but I'm a man who develops a highly-graded software and knows a few things, especially how to make a good product and what attitude and experience customers should get. I also have my own team).
I indeed have broke rules, yes, but as a user I'm deserve at least for answer from on of moderators in game chat, when I'm actually talking to them.
Now, I will not talk about this again after this post, because I can see that it annoys you. And annoying you is not what I want to achieve.
Again, I like this server. And if you're filtering such a players as mine, well, it's to bad for you, anyway, but yes, you're free to do anything you want.
I'm already working on launching my own server, and I actually have one long time ago, so I actually know what I'm talking about.
There also was a time I actually wanted to join you to help improve the server. But I already have no such a desire know. Maybe, it will come back later.

Originally Posted by InsaneJ

What happened here is the following:

You joined our server.

You were given a course on our rules (the "rule maze").

You broke the rules anyway.

You got caught.

You got punishment.

Something didn't went as expected with your punishment. (If you had politely asked if something was wrong, we would have taken the time to help out. But not now.)

Your entitled little self thought you deserved better.

You disagree with our rules.

You complained to me in a PM.

I posted your PM on the forum as you should have done in the first place, except in a polite manner without all the entitled whiny complaints.

I addressed your points.

You look like an idiot.

Pls, refrain from calling me an "idiot", "little self". You don't have a reason to do that. You don't even know me. It is an intentional insulting, which is forbidden by your own rules and is a bad attitude towards players.
Answering your questions:
Yes, I'm definitely deserving a better, because I'm a player, human and end-user.
No, I'm not disagree with your rules. I have break them, but not intentional, thought. As I already have said, I will not try to joke again, I understood that not everyone understand this kind of jokes, so it is better to avoid any jokes at all.

Yes, I had asked politely since from the beginning, but I have got no answer at all for more then 3 days or so, so I just decide to write to this forum. In case I really didn't I apologize, maybe that was written in impulsive state. I'm a human with emotions, after all.

Call my complaints whatever you wan't, but it will not change the facts I'm talking about. But I also aware you, that those kind of statements from you or anyone else ("whiny complaints", "little self", "etc") annoys and offends me. I will say this again, please, refrain from this.
The reason why I contacted you via PM is simple - to not create any inconveniences to you and because you're the chief here.
II'm not against public discussions in any way, on the contrary, I am for it.

Originally Posted by InsaneJ

I have restarted the jail server, just in case anything got stuck there. You may try again and see if your jail time ticks down. If it does not then feel free to post here. If you post anything unfriendly you will get a ban instead of jail time. To be clear, this is a "just shut up and take it" kind of deal I'm giving you. And the only reason I'm doing that is because it's my day off and I'm in a good mood. Otherwise I would have banned you instead of going through the trouble of typing this post.

Well, thx for this too. I think it's fair enough.
But again, just in case, I'm not posting something unfriendly and I'm not going to do it - that is the kind of person I am.
But I want to explain myself and talk to you and Elborax to regulate all this peacefully and minimize any misunderstanding that could have appear in a recent period of time.

Indeed, kikiwora was jailed for 5 hours due to "a simple racist joke." (Here I'd like to see a chart or article that shows telling simple racist jokes instead of well-constructed and sophisticated racist jokes sheds better light on the person who makes them). Yes, he apologized right away when confronted and promised that it'd not happen again. That was one of two reasons (keeping the second one for later) why they were not banned straight away for racism and insulting the server, which they both did. Instead, I placed them in jail to see what happens. Sadly for them, it happened.

This occurred to me as an ironical remark that should simply bring on the discussion about the whole thing. And showed the disrespect to my lenience on the punishment and breaking their promise. I get it, I use irony and sarcasm quite often as well as others but say it comes a bit inappropriate when serious things, such as the server rules, are being discussed. I was serious with you.

Sorry for that, I should have been more serious. But in defecne I have to say that I actually were weighting and explanation to you at that moment I've got banned. And it just pissed me off. Yeas, I'm quite slow in weighting texts. because I always try not to insult anyone.

Also I can't recall when other person was insulting this server. Could you remind me that? Cause I think it's a mistake. Or maybe I just wasn't on server at that time.

Originally Posted by Elbe97

Adding to the "good member" and "respecting rules" and such. Not to mention a bit of ironical remarks on "how would you do things differently" and "how some of our rules may sound silly" kikiwora was previously:
1) warned for improper animal penning (both in pen size and animal count)
2) warned for having too many fruit trees in your town
3) notified about having yet again one more tree over the limit

That is true.
I was warned for improper animal penning and I fixed it right away I have time to do it (yes, I'm actually planning what I'm doing on server).
I was warned for having too many fruit trees in my town and I've chopped them down personally.
As for the last one, I'm sorry about that, it seems like I just forgot about those due to having hard times on work. Though, I will do my best to avoid this in future.

Originally Posted by Elbe97

and finally, when I banned them I spawned in their town only to find yet again another tree over the limit, which I removed without any warnings now. I can provide the evidence for the above cases if anyone happens to not trust me (yes, I keep those on a dedicated backed-up drive).

I'm sorry for that too. But I'm actually have no idea where that tree came from. Maybe we have miscalculated the trees quantity, maybe it was growing there by itself.
The fruit trees we actually have planted are located in front of out house (between the wall and entrance to in-cave castle).

Originally Posted by Elbe97

Yes, I maybe should've removed the jail time sentence prior the ban. But you made it to the forum only to privately complain about the things mentioned above (my time is also limited therefore I can't list them for you), you could've made the time to overlook the Ban/Unban Requests subforum to find your ban listed there with evidence and some story to be followed by (the direct link to your ban is provided at the beginning of this post).

I have kinda expected this to happen, though you could've use the time spent in jail to look up your thing properly, or maybe to put together an article on Why Should We Let You Play Again and Trust You in Following Our Simple Rules™ or something along those lines. Shouting in global might accidentally work but it turns out being a bit inconvenient for both sides of the case. You have spent quite some time in the community, okay we get it. HOW did you spend it, is a bit of a question. All in all, this was the second reason I decided to give you a chance before banning you. And you failed to convince me.

Understood that. As I said earlier, the reason I was using the global chat is because I haven't no other way to contact you to ask your help to solve this problem, in other words, yes, it was quite inconvenient for me, and I assume, for you too.

As the reason why I have used a private message is obvious, as for me, and it's not to cause some inconvenience to InsaneJ or you.
First of all, I wanted to get answer for questions "what I can do now?" and "How this can be solved?"
I also have found no guidance in game for this time of situations. Basically, I got myself isolated. And no-one like that.

Now, I have the most important question.
Here you can threat me like a stupid man, because it's not quite obvious for me what exactly I should do to earn a pardon?
But please, be polite.

The reason I'm asking this question is that I have no time to spent it just wondering in jail doing nothing for a 5hours.
It's a lot of time. And the time is the most valuable thing every man has. And I always value that time - not only mine, but a time of other people too.

I see you suggest me to write an article. Well, I already have wrote something similar to an article just a half on a hour ago or so, in this thread. Thought, it is not quite related to the tema you suggested, "Why Should We Let You Play Again and Trust You in Following Our Simple Rules".

So just in case I can write a short version of those a little bit later, maybe tomorrow, cause I already get tired from explaining myself correctly. I hope it will not tire you, to read all of those words I've been writing until now. But for time being, thank both of you for patience and desire to understand me and help me.

P.S.
I also want to know how I can check how much time has left on ban counter? Cause I haven't found any clue how to do it.
Help command is not allowed and there is no guidance how to do this in server messages too.

Just some things to note on your reply (It's not worth my time to methodically quote snippets).

The "absurd" animal and tree rules are not arbitrarily decided crap to make people upset. TerraFirmaCraft does not run well with big maps and 20+ players simultaneously playing, building, running, teleporting around a very large world map. Thank the developers for making everything tile entities. It took A LOT of testing and fine tuning to come up with the limits which are nicknamed the "lag rules" because they prevent lag. For the record, any staff member could easily answer your questions and concerns about the limit rules if you wouldn't have assumed it's some asinine creation.

There isn't a point system to "judging" a player. It doesn't matter how much good you've done, if you break rules you get the same punishments. I've banned players, VIP members, and a staff member previously and they all had something in common, they broke the rules. So yes we are judging you from what we see.

The whole point of punishment is that it's not fun. If rules are broken, you're punished. We're not going to reward you with items to take into the game... Perhaps you should not break the rules, and if that's too difficult then find a different server.

Okay I just hit the part where you say everyone deserves "unbiased, good and adequate attitude" towards them. I certainly hope you're not implying the staff are biased. WE ENFORCE THE RULES. WE DON'T CARE WHO YOU ARE. Get off this discrimination kick already and surf through the hundreds of players I've banned and see just how biased I am.

Now it's getting good. YOU DON'T PAY FOR JACK. You don't get a say in how things are done unless we ask for your input. I want to ban you just for that comment. THE STAFF VOLUNTEER. YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO ANYTHING. Go start your own terrafirmacraft server, make your own rules, and be available to your playerbase 24/7 all day everyday. Oh, also consider that this is your own fault since you didn't post on the forums to begin with and rather than accepting the frustrated lesson from the owner you're digging your hole deeper.

And this whole "I was going to donate but..." or "I was going to help/join but..." is rather pitiful. In order to become staff you first have to become a VIP which is a nominated and then voted upon position. I will always vote no, so don't pretend you even had a shot in your dreams. Sounds like I'm a hardass huh? Well I've dealt with a lot of players over the years and my ban hammer sense is tingling.

You should count yourself lucky that Elbe has given you so many warnings. If I were actively policing the TFC server (Which I do randomly still when motivated) I would have banned you right after I found you to be non-compliant and would have been done with it.

You strike me as someone who has to get the last word. That will be your undoing considering your obvious disregard for how we've run the servers for over 7 or more YEARS. Did you ever consider that we have such an enjoyable community and servers because we have strict rules? Don't answer that. Think about it. Now stop replying, go play some minecraft, and don't break the rules again or so help me God I'll go 'Taken' on you.

To be honest, it takes some time and brain capacity to get through all the replies. I have tried to read through this whole thread once again to see what else I have to add to this thing.

Originally Posted by kikiwora

Also I can't recall when other person was insulting this server. Could you remind me that? Cause I think it's a mistake. Or maybe I just wasn't on server at that time.

I often refer to players I don't know very well in this neutral way, trying not to assume their gender, or when not talking directly to them. AFAIK, your friend did not do anything against the rules in that way.

I'd like to say that, no matter what you think, OUR RULES consider the N-word racist, you have used it twice in a short period of time, the first one could be under certain circumstances considered as slang as some people (mostly in the U.S.) use it that way. The second, however, referred to our server name in disrespectful and dishonoring way. If we leave out the racist meaning and context of the word, it is foul language at least and is also out of bounds here. No matter what, you have been banned for insulting the server which also happened to contain a word that we consider racist.

Once again, you have had some infractions against the rules, as Jiro have stated, you have received many warnings (from me) which was, again, my lenience or a way to deal with such things when the player shows at least some interest in following rules. I believe I have answered many of your questions about the rules before and tried to clarify their importance to server performance and stability.

And finally, digging through our evidence posting system I found you have a warning for implied swearing already, adding to the previous list. One and only warning, that is. So uhm, not looking good for you.

But I actually still have a problem - 5h of active movement have passed, but I still can't connect to server:
I have connected to server at 14:30 or so and I was moving within the jail up until 20:00 - that's about 5h and a half.
I have no video record of this (cause it would taken up too much space on my disk, that I don't have), but I do have this screenshots, proving that my words are truth.
On the first one you can see a time and a distance, I have traveled while being on jail server (those were reseted automatically, when I got to the jail server), on the second one you can see a total game runtime.

Am I banned for more then 5h or is this an issue with servers time counter itself?

In any case, I ask you to unban/pardon me, because I have pleaded myself guilty, apoligized for problems I have caused, served my 5h sentence being active (moving) on the jail server, and I will ensure that i will not break server rules again.